Silver Scream

by David J. Schow (Editor), Tobe Hooper (Introduction)

Welcome to the world of the theatre that few people ever see—Silver Scream collects nineteen modern horror stories all loosely dealing with the bizarre lives and often brutal deaths of the men and woman working in television and the movies.

Let today's finest writers take you back stage to meet, among others:
A deranged film editor his takes his job as a 'cutter' very seriously.
A frustrated makeup artist who discovers the power of voodoo can be a sharp, double-edged sword.
The hungry, malignant force that lies in wait beneath a dilapidated movie house.
A washed-up serial actor of the 1940s who attempts to stop a psychotic serial killer of the 1980s.
A movie critic driven over the edge of madness by the viewing of a 'lethal film'.
A man who discovers he can truly live forever on the silver screen

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fiction

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

David J. Schow is an American author of horror novels, short stories, and screenplays, associated with the "splatterpunk" movement of the late '80s and early '90s. Most recently he has moved into the crime genre.

Reviews

[Karl]

This hardcover is numbered 47 of 500 copies produced and is signed by signed by David J. Schow, F. Paul Wilson, Robert Bloch, Craig Spector, John Skipp, and Edward Bryant. Besides those already listed, include stories by: John M. Ford, Steven R. Boyett, Craig Spector, Jay Sheckley, Chet Williamson, Mick Garris, Douglas E. Winter, John Skipp, Edward Bryant, and Mark Arnold.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

an anthology i genuinely hate to finish reading, silver scream was produced in ‘88 by dark harvest press and later republished as a mass market paperback and is now, woefully, out of print and hard to score for less than twenty or thirty bucks—still worth that price of admission, though, because this is a horror film marathon you won’t soon forget.

filled to the brim with dark fiction superstars and newbies alike, this anthology—edited by none other than david j. schow, he who coined the term “splatterpunk”—reads like a rock ‘n’ roll show where every act should be the headliner. no “filler” here to speak of: every story gets a 5-star rating from this reader. has that ever happened before? hell fucking no.

is it possible to pick a favorite story, then? how about chet williamson’s “return of the neon fireball”, the bittersweet and horrifying tale of a washed-up loser buying the drive-in of his high school days in a cursed effort at reliving his glory years? this one’s penchant for 1950s americana and its exploration of nostalgia’s dark underbelly make for a gripping little haunt of which stephen king would be jealous, or proud.

and there’s the finale (before schow’s rambling-but-amusing afterword), “pilgrims to the cathedral,” by mark arnold. i’d never never read, or even heard of, this author, but his longish story about the “intersection of two belief systems” features a whole lot of carnage and batshit insanity to rival anything clive barker put to paper. i almost lost my dinner at three young girls playing catch with a dying man’s still-conscious brain. it’s this collection’s most daring entry, its most go-for-broke, and i can understand why it’s the finale.

who could forget john skipp’s “film at eleven”, a dirty little grimy portrait of a battered woman who’s simply given up—this one was inspired by the publicly aired suicide of budd dwyer. or there’s ray garton’s stomach-churning and shocking “sinema”, and joe lansdale’s classic “night they missed the horror show”, and . . .

truth is, i could talk about every story here, because i loved them all that much. best part of the deal is most of these authors were new to me. sure, i’ve collected novels by chet williamson and john skipp and ray garton and f. paul wilson, but i’d never gotten around to reading them—but now i will, and soon. and several of these writers were entirely new to me, meaning i’d never even heard of them, and i’ll seek them out. here’s hoping they wrote other stuff.

this is why i love horror.

”silver scream is a themed book, but that’s the only conventional thing about it. to avoid hitting a single note repeatedly until a good migraine roosts, i tried to broaden so-called cinema horror past obvious haunted theatre stories, to include stuff about grind houses, 3-for-1 flea pits, porn castles, werewolf circuit drive-ins, snuff films, peep shows, fly-by-night video rental shacks, has-been actors, never-was ingenues, tinseltown burnouts, movie cults, immortal stars, film school dorks, media mutants, and even that bastard ‘lil bro, television . . . a wide variety of nightmares all predicated in some fashion on the cinema experience.”

- david j. schow, editor, afterword.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silver Scream is a big book of horror stories that focus on horror film to a greater or lesser extent. It was published by genre press Dark Harvest in hardback in 1988, and then Tor released a mass market paperback edition later that year. It includes stories from most (well, many... there's a notable lack of K... the royal K, not potassium) of the leading horror writers of the 1980s. It seems about evenly split between original stories and reprints, though all are from the 1980s except for Robert Bloch's The Movie People from a 1969 issue of F & SF. There are twenty stories, a charming afterword by editor Schow, and an introduction by Tobe Hooper. I especially liked stories by Karl Edward Wagner, Clive Barker, and Mark Arnold, and my favorite was Night Calls the Green Falcon by Robert R. McCammon. It's a great look at the state of horror, both page and screen, from the '80s.

[Bandit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been waiting to read this book for so long and it totally completely and remarkably lived up to all my expectations. This is a perfect mixture of movies and horror stories, two of my favorite things. With an all star line up featuring a bunch of well known names and some I have never heard of before, this book has so many excellent stories that it's nearly impossible to put down despite the episodic nature of anthology reading. Actually, interestingly enough, the lesser known names fair incredibly well. Couple of the stories I didn't think belonged, but it was such a small part of the whole. I don't know if I appreciate Richard Christian Matheson's work as much as his dad's, he seems to be doing the exact opposite in writing styles, it is certainly interesting, though. Schow, an amazing short story writer himself, doesn't have any of his own in this book, serving exclusively an as editor and a provider of lengthy, entertaining afterword with the most unconventional authors' bios. Awesome book, tons of fun and an absolute must read for any fan of horror on screen, on page and otherwise.

[Elmer Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a horror fan, these names alone prompted me to pick up this anthology. I mean Texas Chainsaw Massacre/Poltergeist/Salem's Lot/ Funhouse director Tobe Hooper for starters, you're kidding right? I'm in. Throw in Clive Barker of Hellraiser and Books of Blood fame! Add a little Masters of Horror, Mick Garris in there, no brainer. Who wouldn't read this?

The selection of stories covers a definitive genre of days gone by (even more so from 2021 than its late 80's printing), whether it be the 50's drive-in, Neon Fireball, or a local cinema from one's childhood hiding a dark secret, or even pleading to early Oprah on the television. Some become a topical take on the vain nature of the business, while others capture the horror within the horror genre, and most include a litany of nearly all of the best horror flicks in existence (if not just for filler or exposition, as what's showing on the three screens at "the Zone" of the Pilgrims at the Cathedral.)

None are connected directly, beyond the covers of this book, but each evokes a moment, or feeling, in time, so that everyone will find something to like here from despair of sacrifice in one's career in "More Sinned Against" to one last heroic suit up in "Night calls the Green Falcon."

Yes, the stories feel dated because they, and their subject matter, are. And that adds to the quality of where the stories take you. Highly recommend this one.

• Introduction (Silver Scream) • essay by Tobe Hooper
• Preflash • short story by John M. Ford
• Cuts • novelette by F. Paul Wilson
• The Movie People • (1969) • short story by Robert Bloch
• Sinema • novelette by Ray Garton
• Son of Celluloid • (1984) • novelette by Clive Barker
• The Answer Tree • novelette by Steven R. Boyett
• Night They Missed the Horror Show • short story by Joe R. Lansdale
• More Sinned Against • (1984) • short story by Karl Edward Wagner
• Return of the Neon Fireball • short story by Chet Williamson
• Night Calls the Green Falcon • novelette by Robert R. McCammon
• Bargain Cinema • non-genre • (1985) • short story by Jay Sheckley
• Lifecast • short story by Craig Spector
• Sirens • short story by Richard Christian Matheson
• Hell • (1987) • short story by Richard Christian Matheson
• A Life in the Cinema • short story by Mick Garris
• Splatter: A Cautionary Tale • (1987) • short story by Douglas E. Winter
• Film at Eleven • short story by John Skipp [as by John M. Skipp]
• The Show Goes On • (1982) • short story by Ramsey Campbell
• The Cutter • short story by Edward Bryant
• Pilgrims to the Cathedral • novelette by Mark Alan Arnold [as by Mark Arnold]
• Endsticks • essay by David J. Schow (the end was a giant gush-fest of complimentary behavior not scary at all)

Thanks for reading.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silver Scream is a fantastic anthology of horror stories somehow related to movies. It's got most of the 80's big names in horror, but the standout story is Mark Arnold's "Pilgrims To the Cathedral," a bloody homage to pulpy, drive-in horror with a surprisingly tender heart.

[T.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best horror anthologies ever - every story is cinematically themed. Authors include: Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, Robert McCammon, F. Paul Wilson, John Skipp, Craig Spector, Mick Garris, Ray Garton, Joe R. Lansdale, Richard Christin Matheson, Chet Williamson, and Douglas E. Winter.

[Zachary Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exemplary 1980s anthology. Not a bad story in the bunch. Wasn't in love with the first entry but it still engaged me. Lots of variety and mayhem.

[Christian Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this old (1988) anthology at a used bookstore in St. Louis for $2- which is the best way to make any literary discovery.

It grabbed my eye because it ties in with my current WIP, MIDNIGHT AT THE HEAVEN, which is set in a haunted movie theater. I thought a cinema-themed horror anthology would serve as nice inspiration.

Only a few stories here are actually set in a theater. (The theme is loosely adhered to.) And maybe some of the stories haven't aged that well in 30 years. (No fewer than 3 of them use voodoo dolls as a plot device- must have been a trend back then.) Also sadly typical of old horror anthologies, there is not one story by a woman writer.

My favorites are the ones that delivered on the promise of cinematic terror. Clive Barker's BOOKS OF BLOOD-era "Son of Celluloid" was the only one I've read before. It was one of the chief inspirations for MATH, and remains batshit brilliant. I also liked Robert Bloch's poignant "The Movie People," Ramsey Campbell's dread-full (in the best sense) "The Show Goes On" and Edward Bryant's haunting "The Cutter."

But the real find for me is my new favorite horror story "Pilgrims to the Cathedral" by Mark Arnold. "Sleaze manifested as a quasi-sentient force" when a mega-church arena unwisely takes over a grindhouse drive-in. It's what I call a "feel-good" story.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lately, my reading interests seem to be fantastical short pieces, whether fiction or even non-fiction.

_Silver Scream_ claims to be an anthology of cinema themed horror stories, yet has two stories I don't think could be called horror. Nevertheless I highly enjoyed them. One of the stories, "The Movie People", by Robert Bloch, is a charming fantasy about a man who has had a long career as a movie extra, and thinks he sees his long lost love appearing in movies she couldn't possible have been in. The other story "Night Calls the Green Falcon" might be gonzo science fiction, and prescient too. In this story, an aging former actor, who might not have all his marbles, becomes a costumed crime fighter. Hollywood should turn this story into a summer movie.

Other stories I liked was the well crafted "Cuts" by F. Paul Wilson and the entertainingly over-the-top "Son of Celluloid" by Clive Barker. The non fiction piece in this book, "Endsticks" by the editor David J. Schow, eschews the dry approach of giving a brief biography of the writers of these stories and instead gives entertaining personal anecdotes.

The other stories ranged, for me, from good to didn't like. Cinema themed fiction can be interesting.

[Ryan Sasek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the paperback and Hardcover #44 signed by by every author. This collection is simply fantastic. So many great stories. Highly recommend!

[Snood · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s annoying to say this about every anthology I read, but Silver Scream was a very mixed bag. Some stories were phenomenal (Night Calls the Green Falcon) while others were simply horrible (Night They Missed the Horror Show). The others lie between those extremes with several starting off very well and then falling apart in the end, frequently also overusing sexual imagery to the point of seeming juvenile. Pilgrims to the Cathedral especially stood out in this regard.

5-star: Night Calls the Green Falcon

4-star: Cuts, The Movie People, Sinema, Son of Celluloid

3-star: More Sinned Against, Return of the Neon Comet, Splatter, The Cutter, Pilgrims to the Cathedral

2-star: Preflash, The Answer Tree, Bargain Cinema, Lifecast, Hell, A Life in the Cinema, Film at Eleven, The Show Goes On

1-star: Night they Missed the Horror Show, Sirens

[[on hiatus, probably forever] The rockabilly werewolf from Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly one of the best themed anthologies of all time. Of course, any book that has Son Of Celluloid, The Show Goes On, and The Night They Missed The Horror Show is going to get at least three stars, regardless of the quality of the other stories, but this one has quite a few other good stories. Notes on the stories to come.

[Cassandra Glissadevil · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.2 stars.
Hit and miss movie theater themed anthology. More hits than misses. Clive Barker's "Son of Celluloid" is a perfect horror short story. Other stories stretch the relationship to the Silver Screen. Truth be told? I'm harsher on horror anthologies then novels because I prefer novels.
Welcome addition to any serious horror collection.

[Brian Sammons · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite themed anthologies from back in the day.

[★ Liane ★ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love every story in this book. There's always a twist in the end. A must have!

[Bob Vickers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily the best anthology I've ever read, and introduced me to the great Joe Lansdale.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars overall. There are certainly a few great stories, and a lot of good ones, but the duds stop this from being a knock-out hit. I do like the theme of tying horror to movies, which has a lot of great potential.
Introduction by Tobe Hooper 3.5 stars. Thematically appropriate format, and getting an actual horror director for the intro was perfect.
"Preflash" 3.5 stars. Would really like to rate it 4, but the lack of clarity for several points in the ending brings it down. (A griffin? Who are these people? Why did Griffin stop trying to save Malaryk?)
"Cuts" 4 stars. Solid story, with a good twist ending that I didn't see coming.
"The Movie People" 4 stars. Good premise, good writing. An idea I've seen before, but executed well.
"Sinema" 3.75 stars. This is a real horror story. Well-written, disturbing imagery, but sometimes a little too disturbing for my taste. Interestingly, the grandma turned out to be right - evil did come from what Brett learned from movies.
"Son of Celluloid" 3.75 stars. Really good, the use of movie characters is always fun. The connection between the tumor and its powers was not really strong, however.
"The Answer Tree" 2.5 stars. Like the film in the story, the story is artsy, and simultaneously empty and full of itself.
"Night They Missed the Horror Show" 0 stars. Complete garbage. Every single scene is uninteresting, not entertaining, and seemingly written just to grab people with shock value instead of quality.
"More Sinned Against" 2.5 stars. About 80% of the story isn't entertaining and seems to be there for shock value. The last 15% saves it from being trash.
"Return of the Neon Fireball" 3.5 stars. Not too complex. Interesting twist at the end, and then another after that.
"Night Calls the Green Falcon" 4 stars. Fun story calling back to old serials and pulp superhero ideas.
"Bargain Cinema" 3 stars. Very short, not really complex, and seems kind of devoid of a larger context.
"Lifecast" 3.5 stars. Classic tale of revenge coming back on someone. This collection seems to love voodoo (well, Santeria this time).
"Sirens" 2.25 stars. The chopped format of this doesn't do anything to make it better, and detracts from it. It is trying to say something, but it's so blunt that it isn't interesting. I don't see why he bothered to write and submit this.
"Hell" 2.5 stars. Reads like a story-length non-sequitor. The DJ descriptions connect to nothing, the horror happens for no reason. No tension, no dread.
"A Life in the Cinema" 3.25 stars. Kind of odd, mostly well-written, but gets gross near the end, and not in a good way.
"Splatter: A Cautionary Tale" 3.5 stars. The combination of protests against violence in fiction media with the ending of the antagonist makes a story with thought put into it.
"Film at Eleven" 3.25 stars. The ending didn't seem to match with the rest. Why does he now go crazy and think that this all is a good idea and will make him famous, especially when he was acting rationally after he smelled smoke?
"The Show Goes On" 2 stars. This is a meandering mess. A paranoid person walking around, with a series of seemingly random memories popping up that connect to nothing.
"The Cutter" 3.5 stars. A good story, not special but not bad. Not supernatural, but not gruesome.
"Pilgrims to the Cathedral" 3.5 stars. The ending was a tad too long.
"Endsticks" 3.5 stars. Good author outros. Not overly flattering, as some author intros are.

[Jay · Rating 5 out of 5]

★★★★★

There’s a certain kind of book that doesn’t knock on the door so much as kick it in, muddy boots and all. Silver Scream by David J. Schow is very much that kind of guest. It doesn’t ask to be liked. It asks to be endured, examined, maybe even respected from a cautious distance. First, the warning, plain and unvarnished. This collection sits squarely in the blood-slicked alley of splatterpunk, a movement that took horror and decided subtlety was overrated. Expect graphic violence, psychological cruelty, and moments that feel engineered to test your threshold rather than entertain it. This isn’t “creepy fog on the moors” horror. It’s closer to opening a trapdoor and finding something still moving beneath. If someone comes in expecting the gothic mood of Dracula or even the creeping dread of The Shining, they’re going to feel like they boarded the wrong train and it’s already at full speed. And yet… admiration comes easily, almost reluctantly at first, then with conviction.

Schow writes like a man who understands that horror isn’t just about what happens, but how it lands. His prose has this coiled, muscular efficiency. He doesn’t linger unless it serves a purpose, and when he does, it’s surgical. The stories feel engineered rather than merely written, like each sentence has been filed down to a sharp edge. There’s a cinematic quality too, which makes sense given his work in screenwriting. You can practically hear the cuts, the camera angles, the pacing of tension. The title itself, Silver Scream, feels like a manifesto: horror as spectacle, as flashbulb violence, as something meant to burn itself into your retinas. What makes Schow fascinating, especially in light of your personal encounter with him, is the contrast between the man and the material. By many accounts, and clearly your own, he comes across as thoughtful, grounded, even warm. It raises the natural question: where does this come from?

One answer is craft. Schow emerged during a time when horror writers were pushing back against the polished, mainstream success of authors like Stephen King. Splatterpunk wasn’t just about gore for its own sake, though it often gets reduced to that. It was a rebellion. A way of saying horror should confront, not comfort. Schow’s work reflects that ethos, but he brings discipline to it. The brutality isn’t random; it’s structured, almost thematic. He explores power, decay, obsession, and the fragility of the human body and mind, just through a lens that doesn’t flinch. Another answer is that writing like this can be a kind of controlled exorcism. Not in a melodramatic sense, but in a technical one. A writer imagines extremes so the reader doesn’t have to live them. The page becomes a pressure valve. Schow seems less like someone reveling in cruelty and more like someone mapping it, cataloging it, understanding its contours so precisely that he can reproduce it with unnerving clarity.

And then there’s the simple truth: some artists are drawn to edges. Not because they’re broken, but because they’re curious about where things break. Schow feels like that kind of mind. Analytical, deliberate, willing to go further than most, but not without intention. Silver Scream ends up being a strange kind of paradox. It’s ugly in content, often intentionally so, but there’s a craftsmanship underneath that’s hard to ignore. You don’t “enjoy” it in the traditional sense. You survive it, reflect on it, maybe even admire the architecture of its darkness after the fact.

Meeting him probably sharpened that contrast for you. It usually does. The mind that builds nightmares can still belong to someone who laughs easily, speaks kindly, and understands the line between fiction and reality better than most. That’s not hypocrisy. That’s control. So the final word lands somewhere between admiration and caution. This is not a casual read. It’s a deliberate descent. But if you’re willing to go there, Schow is a steady, if unsettling, guide through the depths.

[Ethan Luce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun horror anthology with some hits and some misses, as in any anthology. Watching various horror authors take on Hollywood, the ultimate horror show, results in some damned good stories.

A lot of these premises take the prompt and take it to really imaginative places. Highlights for me include:
- Robert Bloch's "The Movie People": a melancholic love story about a Hollywood extra who’s been around since the Golden Age of Hollywood, and his long lost love. It has an ending that’s both beautiful and eerie in the questions it raises.
* Clive Barker's "Son of Celluloid": A weird, grotesque story about a dead man's tumor coming to horrifying life in a run-down movie theater. Despite the odd premise, this is a really chilling story and a great, disturbing examination of the power of cinema. And it has a satisfying, darkly comic ending that wraps it up with a bang.
* "The Answer Tree" by Steven R. Boyett: A depraved slow-burn about a snobby film critic who attends the showing of the titular banned and controversial foreign film. Simultaneously a deeply disturbing read and a subtle needling of cinema-goers, both the snooty art house crowd and the brainless ones only out for shallow entertainment and titillation.
* "More Sinned Against" by Karl Edward Wagner: A bleak, gritty revenge tale straight out of Tales From the Crypt about a selfish, predatory actor on the hunt for his big break and a down-on-her-luck actress he exploits to get it. It has some 80s sexism but it's still a damn good read.

There are some stories that didn't work for me. There are others I found mixed bags, such as:

* "Sinema" by Ray Garton: It has a character that unfortunately falls into the gay sexual predator stereotype, but otherwise is a really good and uncomfortable read about religious hypocrisy. The ending will rock you to your core.
* "Night Calls the Green Falcon": It falls at times into clichéd 80s crime fiction, but there's some real, impactful poignance here. The ending is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read.

[mick_paolino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pensare che nel 1998 Einaudi portava in Italia questa antologia, curata dal padre dello splatterpunk, è abbastanza suggestivo se pensiamo a quanta fatica fa oggi la grande editoria nel proporre narrativa di questo genere.

Le storie di questa antologia, che è a tutti gli effetti un libro iniziatico sullo splatterpunk, ci portano in mezzo al buio che scende in sala poco prima che inizi il film.
In quella porzione di tempo compresso, schiacciato tra eccitazione e aspettativa da un lato, e soddisfazione dall’altro, vivono delle creature spaventose dagli appetiti sanguinari.

Spente le luci rimane il buio e in esso si intravedono tentacoli che si contorcono, bocche piene di denti che sorridono maliziose e occhi che ti invitano a partecipare allo show.

I racconti sono uno meglio dell’altro e riescono a settare un livello alto di narrazione e horror e a mantenerlo dal primo all’ultimo.

[GaP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine those fleapit video stores on the Eighties and early Nineties. The ones that stocked all of the off-brand schlockiest, trashiest horror movies. That's what reading this anthology is like. And that's a compliment. In fact, if I knew some starry-eyed dreamer that wanted to move to Hollywood to get in the biz, I have them read MORE SINNED AGAINST or A LIFE IN THE CINEMA. You have a has-been screen super-hero, a film buff Christian youth leader serial killer that has the tables turned on him, and a compressed novella that delivers nothing less than a psychotronic apocalypse at a drive in theatre to close out the anthology. After being out of print for a while, this book is again available for purchase. It was a blast to read and perfect the HALLOWEEN season.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing anthology of splatter royalty taking on the world of film. So many authors in this it's mind boggling that more people are not talking about it. I know it's been out of print, but it was just rereleased and worth hunting down.

The coolest thing is how different the authors interpreted the theme. We get looks at Hollywood, drive-ins, TV news, old serials, and more. Everything is covered, explored, and ripped apart for us to see. There are weird stories, haunting ones, super bloody ones, touching ones, and a lot of commentary about the world.

If you want to read a legendary anthology, one that was probably very instrumental for a ton of writers, then this is what you want.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Standard disclaimer for any anthology; some stories are better than others. With one exception, the stories were originally published in the mid to late 80s. In my opinion, they accurately represent 80s horror, and I thoroughly enjoyed this collection.

[Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Offers a bit of everything so you might not notice it doesn’t have much of anything.

[Vermillion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bare-knuckled, no holds barred, hardcore horror anthology. And it was good to me!

[Shiba]

.

[Tony Theberge · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dang. This was a solid anthology. A little bit of gross, a little bit of wtf, and a whole lot of cinema madness.